Unfortunately physical controls are significantly more expensive to make - we're talking a whole extra dollar or five on the BOM price here, which turns into several times that at retail. Capacitative sensing is cheap and plastic membrane buttons are cheap. They're also easier to waterproof.
Touchscreens in vehicles just seem like an accident waiting to happen.
Finally someone mentions this, everyone seems amazed about Tesla’s big iPad, where you control everything in your car, I haven’t tested it yet, but for me having controls that require taking my eyes from the road sounds like a really bad idea, regular buttons give you touch feedback so you don’t need to look, why is everyone so obsessed with touchscreens?
I mean, in interaction design is certainly is. It's just that outside of the design world, not enough people realise that there is more to design than graphic design, and that there is more to design than just adding some pretty chrome at the end of the whole development phase.
Yeah, I have been wondering this for a long time already. Can it be that the new people fresh out of school is taking over the design departments everywhere and they grew up with iPhones?
I had a discussion the other day with someone who designs large, moving machinery. His preference is for the actual controls to be physical switches and knobs that are easy to user and learn. He relegates touchscreens for setup & configuration.
Touchscreens in vehicles just seem like an accident waiting to happen.